BEAUTIFUL/DECAY X ROYAL TALENS Amsterdam Trip PT. 1

I’m happy to present second installment of photographs from our amazing European trip with our friends over at Royal Talens And Canson. If you remember we started our trip in Paris and made our way over to Amsterdam, stopping along the way to check out all the museums, galleries, and sights that each city offered.

We started our first day in Amsterdam with a boat tour of the canals to get acquainted with the many tiny streets and canals that zig zag throughout the city. Along the way we saw many amazing examples of dutch architecture, design, street art and of course Houseboats!

Although most of the architecture in Amsterdam is quite old the buildings are incredibly well kept. Perhaps its the fresh paint jobs on all the buildings or just the classic look of the architecture itself but even though most of the buildings were built hundreds of years ago they all have a very clean and modern feel to them. The only thing that might giveaway their age is how most of the buildings are slanting in one direction or the other (like the above image). This is most likely caused by the water from the canals or the cities ancient banning of levels.

Most of the canals had long lines of houseboats in all shapes, styles, and sizes. Every time I saw one I kept thinking about how I should leave LA, move to Amsterdam and open the new Beautiful/Decay offices in a sleek minimal houseboat with a rooftop garden.

Strolling through the city streets we came across a mural by Beautiful/Decay Book: 7 Cover artist Stefan Glerum. Stefan is one of our favorite Dutch illustrators and we were excited to see that the city embraced his work as much as we do. If you like his work make sure to check out the 18 page feature interview we did with him in Beautiful/Decay Book: 7!

We all know that the Dutch are famous for their graphic design but I didn’t expect that all their grocery stores would be amazing as well. We must have gone to Marqt at least 5 or 6 times in one week to take in not only the stores great layout and design but also the amazing selection of food. Even all the food they sold was designed with great type, color, and packaging!

Restored was a gorgeous shop full of hand made unique products by young and upcoming designers. Everything from magazines to hand woven throws were offered from some of the best creative minds in the city and beyond.

No clue what this shop was but I loved the logo.

Someone told me this might be a Banksy but I couldn’t confirm nor deny.